Chapter 4, enjoy

Disclaimer:I dont own Naruto

The next day the boys found themselves running laps around the bridge. They were sweating really hard, even Naruto, the stamina freak, thought he was better then Shikamaru.

They both sprawled on the ground, trying to catch their breaths.

"OK, whose idea was this, remind me again" the blonde tried to snarl but figured it took too much energy and pouted.

A sigh was heard as the dark haired boy was sprawled n the ground looking at the sky.

"It was in the scroll Asuma-sensei gave me. A simple workout schedule, for taijutsu training, mendokuse"

They sat in silence for a while, just relaxing and thinking of important things. 'What a drag...i want to see the clouds, in Konoha they are more special...'

'Ramen...miso ramen, juicy, s yummy...'

He started to drool and chant under his breath. Shikamaru sweatdropped. Typical Naruto, what did he expect? His stomach growled. Soon, Naruto's joined in. What a drag!

"Come on Shika, lets go eat and continue"

"Mendokuse, why did I agree to this….."

After breakfast Shikamaru and a dozen Naruto clones continued elemental training, while Naruto started his fuunijutsu training. As the boy read the introduction, he understood, why was this art so valuable and hard. No wonder not many would learn it. You really have to love it, to make through this torture. The introduction said about the importance of fuuinjutsu, why was it a kinjutsu. It said that with seals, man can do anything from the simplest seals to more complicated and very dangerous seals that need sacrifices. It was a very delicate art. One wrong move, a little longer drawn line and the seal won't work. It gave Naruto so many ideas. He could do almost anything! Yosh, lets start. He made a kage bunshin to read the basics, while he went to experiment with Kawarimi. Maybe he really could make something out of it? Or maybe he would fail...reminded a small voice in his head. Naruto ignored it.

He was standing in the forest, where last time he trained tree-walking with team 7. This place brought back memories. He shrugged them off. I have to concentrate. Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Ok, i am clam, now step one, do the jutsu without hand seals!

With that resolve, he started training. With some help of kage bunshin and nearly on the verge of fainting in a few hours he could do it. When he realized it, he started to dance around, yelling "Yatta!" on the top of his voice. But he didnt know the risks of using a kage bunshin yet. When he dispelled them all at once, and the fatigue from them and his own tiredness he simply fainted. Lucky no one was there to see the girly twirl.

When ha came to his senses later on, and after a few shakes of head and a promise to never dispel the clones at once he settled on the grass and thought about his next step.

Ok, what next? I don't need something to change with, what now, what do i do? Yondaimes jutsu was teleporting not exchanging yourself with something...?

He closed his eyes in defeat. He really had no idea where to go after that.

'Ok, Iruka-sensei always analyzed these three jutsu, what did he say? Man, I don't remember, wait, something about natural energy? What the hell is that? And why do we have to change with trees, is it because they are alive, and this called natural energy is more in them? Kawarimi breaks your body into many small pieces of chakra, and the body you want to use. Maybe if I do the jutsu once more, it'll help me…..'

He stood up, closed his eyes and gathered his chakra for the jutsu. There, what is that? He opened his eyes. In his place was a log. But what was that I felt? Was it natural energy? It sure felt like chakra, but not mine, for sure, than, that means trees and every living has chakra. Maybe feeling it will help a bit. But I still don't need to replace myself. I need to teleport. Is that even possible? Wait, don't the toads teleport from their world to ours when we call them?'

He stood up "Yatta, I need to make a seal, akin to summoning, except it will summon me to the place it is placed, I am a genius, genius, dattebayo!"

The thought that he had only just read the basics of sealing and in real didn't have any idea how to work them didn't occur to him. After calming down, he bit his thumb,made a few hand-saels, slammed his hand on the ground and whispered.

"Kuchiose no jutsu"Instantly while smoke appeared and a small red toad emerged.

"Yo, Naruto"

"Yo, Gamakichi, long time no see" he smiled at the toad

"We've been curious, you haven't called us lately"

"Hai, well I have a few problems, so"

"Anything we can help? Gamahiko really likes you, you know"

"Actually, I wanted to ask about Natural Energy, do you know something about it?"

The toad stiffened. "Hai, well, I'll tell you as much as I know. Everything around you has chakra. You can feel the chakra of living things easier, like trees, grass, flowers, you get it. You can feel it. When you meditate, you fell the energy around you. Then you can gather it, but it's very dangerous"

"Dangerous? Why?"

"Well, you see, if you are not supervised, while watching, you can gather too much natural energy and turn to a stone frog. It's a third energy you try to add to your chakra- your 2 energies. You have to balance all three. If you cant, well I already told you. When the balance is completed, you use Senjutsu, which is very difficult to achieve"

"Wow, so who knows Senjutsu?"

"I'm pretty sure Jiraya-sama knows, but not completely. Maybe, when you are older, you can learn it from Fukasaku-sama"

"Who?"

"He is the elder toad"

Naruto was in deep thought.

"Naruto don't try to gather it, you might die"

Naruto smiled at the toad "Don't worry, 'kichi and arigato"

The toad looked at him for a few moments, than poofed out.

All I need is to feel it, not gather it. I have to start meditation. He really didn't care if it was dangerous, he was Uzumaki Naruto after all...

After that a new training regime began. Every morning the two boys will do the normal workout, and chakra-control. Then Shikamaru would go and do his own training. Naruto would make a clone do fuuinjutsu, and then start meditating. In the evenings, they would continue their elemental training.

Nearly a month had passed. Naruto was already at the intermediate level of fuuinjutsu. The scroll had become very complicated; there were special seals that had mistakes in them. You have to figure it out, draw the seal next to the wrong one. If you didnt solve it, figure it out, the scroll just stubbornly didnt let you pass on to the next one (" Kuso! whi cant i work this out! come on, please...please please please...damn you stupid scroll!") Naruto spend many days on the problems. There were also may seals written there that you could make with hand seals. One of them Naruto recognized- the genkou fuuin Hebi-teme used on him. All in all, it was great. He could make his own exploding tags, storage seals, a paralysis seal and many others. He also created his own seals, used for combat. He and Shikamaru both had finished elemental manipulation. Now, Naruto could also start his taijutsu stile training. He had long ago decided to use his wind chakra in taijutsu. He would just have to carry on the idea. In three weeks of constant meditation for about 3 hours a day, he could feel chakra signature and most importantly- Natural energy. But he was cautious and didn't try to gather it. And the seal he was working on was coming well too. It was half finished. He just needed a few more things to stabilize it. Shikamaru had gotten stronger too, even Naruto noticed that. They had both grown, but Naruto was now Shikamaru's height. Tsunami made him eat healthy food, thought he sometimes sneaked off to eat his precious ramen, he couldnt live without it! Ramen was the food of gods!

The month had come to an end, and it was time to concentrate on their mission.

Today they were leaving Nami no kuni for Iwagakure. It would take them nearly a month to reach and was perfect, their training wasnt finished, and they both knew that no matter how strong they had gotten, they were still dealing with a jonin leevl shinobi. Jutsu didnt make a genin into shinobi, and Shikamaru at least understood that. But he had a feeling Naruto did too, after all, he got to know the real Naruto during the month, and he was surprised at the sheer absurd of all of it! The guy was a genius like him, but he could be such a dense idiot sometimes...

Ok, i would like to explain a few things. I didnt know how hiraishin works, this is just how i picture it'll work. It will be explained in next chapter. And about the pairing, i really dont want Naruto to be with Hinata, cos the paining is too overused, and i kind of dont see Naruto with a shy girl like her. I want to make an oc, maybe a redhead, what do you think?

And Shikamaru will probably end up with Temari, we will see, i havent decided yet.

Please review!